Vaughan Gething: First Minister of Wales loses vote of no confidence amid Labour-Plaid Cymru fallout

Vaughan Gething, the embattled First Minister of Wales, has lost a vote of no confidence tabled by the Welsh Conservatives. This motion comes in the wake of the breakdown of the cooperation agreement between Labour and Plaid Cymru, as well as several controversies surrounding Mr Gething.

Mr Gething lost the confidence vote in the Senedd on Wednesday (June 5). Although the motion is non-binding and will not compel him to step down as First Minister, the outcome is a significant embarrassment for him.

Since taking on the role of Welsh Labour leader in March, Mr Gething has faced numerous scandals. Concerns arose after he accepted a donation from an individual convicted of environmental offences during his leadership campaign.

Additionally, Mr Gething has been criticised for his refusal to provide evidence for the dismissal of Senedd member Hannah Blythyn, whom he accused of leaking messages to the media. This decision followed a report on the Nation.Cymru news website, which included a message Mr Gething had posted to a ministerial group chat in August 2020, stating he was “deleting the messages in this group.”

Mr Gething explained that the leaked message was part of an iMessage group chat with other Labour ministers and pertained to internal discussions within the Senedd Labour group. He told the UK Covid-19 Inquiry that the lost WhatsApp messages were not deleted by him but by the Welsh Parliament’s IT team during a security rebuild.

Mr Gething has consistently maintained that he adhered to all rules when accepting the donation and denied that the leaked message contradicted his testimony to the inquiry. He stressed that the message did not relate to pandemic decision-making but to “comments that colleagues make to and about each other.”

Despite losing the confidence of the Senedd, Mr Gething vowed to carry on as First Minister of Wales despite losing a no-confidence vote, saying he is “proud to be the First Minister of Wales to serve and lead my country”.

He lost the vote on his leadership in the Senedd on Wednesday, with 29 votes against him to 27 for. The motion follows the collapse of the co-operation deal between Labour and Plaid Cymru and a series of rows involving Mr Gething.

The First Minister told broadcasters: “I’m here, proud to be the First Minister of Wales to serve and lead my country. That’s what I’ve done today, it’s what I’ll carry on doing.”

He added that it was a “very disappointing afternoon,” branding the motion a “transparent gimmick” that was impacted by two members of his party being unwell. He added: “To go into a position where the ill health of two of our members has affected the outcome of the vote. On ill health grounds we have always paired, that means you even up people in one party to another. We did that for more than three months with the leader of the Conservative Party.”